Poll Finds Majority of Americans Oppose School Vouchers

A new Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans do not support school voucher programs.

The poll, conducted by PDK/Gallup and based on 1,001 phone interviews, shows that 70% of Americans do not support voucher programs [PDF] that allow state funds to be used for private or religiously-affiliated charter schools. It is the highest opposition the study has found to voucher programs to date, and reflects a sharp increase from opposition recorded last year (in 2012, 55% of respondents opposed voucher programs).

Despite public opposition, conservative lawmakers continue to propose voucher programs. Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli openly supports directing state funding to religiously-affiliated schools and creating a voucher program as part of his education platform.

"The American people want a well-funded public school system that benefits all, not a patchwork of unaccountable private schools that cater to a few," said Maggie Garret, co-chair of the National Coalition for Public Education, in a recent press release [PDF.] "The taxpayer-funded school voucher experiment has been tried and failed. It's time to put the emphasis back on public education."

1/27/2016 Taiwan Elects First Woman President - In a landslide victory, the leader of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Tsai Ing-wen won the country's presidential election, becoming the first woman in Taiwan's history to hold the position.
Emphasizing her party's commitment to maintaining Taiwan's independence from China, Tsai won over young voters eager to usher in a political changing of the guard following some 70 years of dominance by the pro-Chinese unification party, the Kuomintang (KMT), chaired by presidential opponent Eric Chu. . . .